‘Queen of Hearts’ (NR)

Jon Amiel's "Queen of Hearts" is a revenge story so operatic that you expect the characters to burst ecstatically into song.

The film opens in a small hillside village in Italy where a beautiful young woman named Rosa (Anita Zagaria) runs off with Danilo (Joseph Long), breaking her promise to marry the butcher's son, Barbariccia (Vittorio Amandola). Borne on a current of heedless romanticism, the narrative sweeps you away in an instant. As a storyteller, Amiel -- who directed the much-praised series "The Singing Detective" for television -- has a brisk, economical style that loses nothing in grace for what is gained in speed. And he knows how to linger on sensual detail without losing momentum, so that we take in the glint of sunlight on the espresso machines as Danilo dashes out of his father's cafe, or the jet-black sheen of Barbariccia's hair when he pledges to get even.

The audacity in Amiel's style is blithe and unintimidating; he keeps his energy up and his material light. The narrative, which covers 20 years, picks up after Danilo and his family have moved to London. And in the early going, while the couple's younger son, Eddie (Ian Hawkes), gives us a tour of the neighborhood where Danilo has opened his side-street cafe, you feel some of the same robust, folkloric spirit that was so transporting in "Moonstruck."

But "Queen of Hearts" isn't in a class with "Moonstruck"; it doesn't build on the irresistible complexity of its characters' lives the way "Moonstruck" did. About halfway through -- at just about the point, in fact, when Barbariccia arrives to take his revenge -- the director loses his inventiveness. Amiel tells the story of how this destroyed man, who has harbored a lifetime of hatred, comes to England to annihilate his rival, but he can't make it interesting, and the picture loses its drive.

Until then, however, the film has a fragrant sense of everyday life, and as long as it sticks close to the strengths of Tony Grisoni's script, which is full of affectionate observation, it seems constantly fresh, constantly surprising. No one in this impressive cast of actors is familiar, but they're an effortlessly natural and charismatic ensemble. The family organizes itself around Danilo, who as Long plays him is a decent but ineffectual dreamer. (He bankrolls his cafe with gambling winnings gained on the advice given to him in a vision by a talking pig's head.) His wife spends most of her time in an apron, but Zagaria -- a real beauty -- gives her that remarkable physical magnetism that only Italian actresses seem to possess. Instantly, you can see why Barbariccia might scheme for a lifetime to win her back.

Amiel knows how to turn his actors loose, and performances like the one he gets from Vittorio Duse as Danilo's irrepressibly gregarious father, or Jimmy Lambert, as Eddie's restless older brother Bruno, carry the film through its narrative dead spots. Yet the movie isn't as enjoyable as it ought to be. For a film as well-acted and as well-grounded in concrete detail as it is, "Queen of Hearts" is strangely vague; somehow, there's a big hunk missing. For all its life-embracing richness, it doesn't come to much of a point. What's more, Amiel's style, impressive as it is, may be too frilly for his material. It's lace napkins with everyday china.